The Fields Institute Turns Twenty-Five 170725 Final book with covers | Page 29

Where it All Began
7
At the time, we were still expecting a second round of
Ontario’s Centres of Excellence and, critically, this would allow
us to avoid the politics which NSERC funding would inevitably
involve. I viewed this as a huge advantage and, as our phone
conversation went into more and more detail, it became clear
that Jerry thought so as well. Finally, I asked him if he would
be willing to be the Director. There was a long pause, and then
he said: “Providing we can keep the science separate from the
bullshit, I’d be very interested.”
The Long Campaign for Support
While we had a firm plan, realistic cost estimates, and a
prospective director whose name would guarantee our scientific
credibility, there was no source of funding. The hoped-for call
for a second round of Centres of Excellence had not come.
The next two years were spent in seemingly endless attempts
to make the case for the centrality of mathematics to progress
in science and technology in the hopes that financial support
would result.
As part of this effort, Doug Wright introduced me to
executives at Northern Telecom, as he believed that they could
add very credible support.
As a result of Doug’s introductions, John Chadam and I
met with John Roth, who was also a member of the Canadian
Prime Ministers National Advisory Board on Science and
Technology. The timing was propitious. Roth told us that he
had just conducted a study to see if there was a common factor
in the backgrounds of Northern Telecom’s most productive
Research and Development workforce. It turned out that he
had found one: education in mathematics. He said that there
was someone else from the National Advisory Board whom we
should meet, someone well placed to understand our proposal
and to help us find the support it needed. Roth’s suggestion